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Don't fret, Crimean comrades. Москва will save you.

The Russian government is trying to put its best foot forward on the developing East vs. West fight over Crimea. The peninsula, once owned by Ukraine, voted to join Russia on March 16. Two days later, Russia ratified their decision while Washington, Brussels and Kiev cried foul. And now two weeks later, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced plans to make the region friendly to investors.

For starters, what all investors love: tax incentives to put their money to work along the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, home to the famous Yalta Conference and Russia's Black Sea fleet (which is almost as old as the first Yalta conference).

Medvedev said Monday in Simferopol, Crimea's capital, that Russia will designate Crimea a "special economic zone" with tax breaks to attract investors. He called for state-owned Russian banks to open up offices and branches in Crimea. The Prime Minister also singled out two investment projects he felt needed immediate funding. One was for natural gas exploration, which would fall in the arms of state owned Gazprom, and the other was working on fresh water supply in the peninsula through desalination of Black Sea water.

Crimea belongs to Russia. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced various initiatives to make the Crimean peninsula, once part of Ukraine up to two weeks ago, a place for investors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Addressing development issues, Medvedev focused on economic disparity between Russia and Crimea, saying state pensions in Crimea would be raised gradually until they reach the Russian level, RIA Novosti newswire reported today.

On Friday, Russia's government said it would inject 10.7 billion rubles ($300 million) into Crimea's budget and send a 2.4 billion rubles to the port city of Sevastopol for small and medium-sized businesses, social security and miscellaneous items.

Crimea could be a drain on Russian finances. The economy isn't growing to its potential, under 2% GDP growth expected this year. Oil and gas prices -- the lifeblood of Russia's budget -- have held steady to a slight decline. Crimea has an estimated 55 billion ruble budget deficit, which Moscow said it will cover from the federal budget.

In other economic matters, Russia will phase out the Ukrainian currency in Crimea later in 2014, but Medvedev told the locals that private bank deposits, which total 90 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), were safe. The Russian ruble as the official currency now, although the hryvnia is still in circulation and can be used in financial transactions.

Russia has been roundly criticized for annexing Crimea. The process seemed to happen overnight, but can be traced back to the Feb. 22 ousting of the pro-Russian President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Protesters called for his removal from office for months prior to his impeachment after he rejected of a trade deal with the European Union. Millions in Kiev expressed their anger over their President's decision to move close to Russia instead of signing a deal that could have improved Ukraine's struggling economy.

Yanukovych was replaced by the decisively pro-Western Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The problems between Moscow and Kiev over the European trade deal was immediately amplified when Yats' interim government voted to remove the Russian language as one of the official languages of Ukraine. The move irked Crimeans and many ethnic Russians who live in far eastern Ukraine, on Russia's border.

Crimea's parliament unanimously voted on a referendum to secede and took the vote to the population about 10 days later. Over 90% of voters chose to join Russia.

Meanwhile, the U.S. press has been on war footing. Monday's news flow included reports of Tartar and Ukrainian minorities in Crimea fleeing to Kiev. Ukrainians make up around 25% of Crimea's population, with Tartars accounting for around 10%.

Between concerns over Russian military near the Ukrainian border towns, to new concerns that Russia will destroy the Crimean economy -- an economy the Ukrainian government surely never did any justice -- word in the broadcast booths from CBS Sunday Morning to NPR is that Russia wants a new Cold War.

For his part, President Barack Obama denied that Washington and Moscow were heading back to the 1980s.